By Julie Gersten
Over the past few months, we have been hard at work envisioning a future for Refugee Action Fund where we can amplify the generosity of our donors and make the greatest possible impact. Today we share the news that we have decided to close our operations and join forces with Choose Love to carry our mission forward.
Refugee Action Fund launched in 2016 in response to the growing number of people displaced from their homes as a result of violence and natural disaster. As the news cycle continued to churn out photographs and videos of people traveling on boat and on foot with no safe place to go, we knew we had to act. Our goal was to mobilize our networks to provide support to organizations providing safety and restoring humanity to people who were fleeing for their lives.
Since our first event, we have been continually inspired by the overwhelming response we’ve received and the generosity of our donors. Together, we have directed over $2 million to frontline organizations providing vital support and services to help individuals and families in crisis, including $700,000 to ten organizations in 2022.
At its heart, Refugee Action Fund is a community of people dedicated to raising our consciousness about the needs faced by forcibly displaced people, our shared humanity, and how we can help. We are excited for our community to become a part of Choose Love, an organization that shares our deeply held values and can amplify our impact.
When we first launched in 2016, the U.N. reported that almost 65 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes. As a result of prolonged conflict, extreme violence, persecution and climate change, this number is now almost 90 million people. By combining forces with Choose Love, we can maximize our impact to better address the growing needs of the global refugee crisis.
Since 2015, Choose Love has been providing refugees and displaced people with everything they need—from lifesaving search and rescue boats to shelter, food, mental and medical aid, education, and legal support. At the core of their work is advancing the wellbeing and rights of people fleeing harm caused by war, conflict, and climate disasters. They pair this critical work with communications, outreach, and advocacy, acting as an intermediary to direct donations to frontline organizations in hard-to-reach areas including Ukraine, Syria, and Lebanon. Since they began, they have raised more than $80 million and supported almost four million people.
Choose Love has the expertise and capacity to regularly engage Refugee Action Fund donors—sharing compelling and humanizing stories about refugees. Their social media footprint is over 500,000 strong and they have been supported by some of the world’s most adored celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, Coldplay, and Harry Styles, to name a few.
Like Refugee Action Fund, Choose Love works to center, amplify, and elevate refugee stories and ensure that their voices are represented with dignity and agency over their own narrative. Choose Love’s work showcases the human side of displacement and connects everyday people to issues of forced migration, which is exactly the mission that Refugee Action Fund first set out to achieve.
By joining forces with Choose Love, our hope is that our donors will continue their engagement with an organization that has the resources to amplify our impact.
Please join us by signing up for Choose Love’s email list and following them on Instagram and Twitter.